This invention relates to apparatus for x-ray fluorescence analysis, in general and more particularly to such apparatus for examining both homogeneous and inhomogeneous samples.
Apparatus for x-ray fluorescence analysis comprising means for exciting x-ray fluorescence radiation in a sample, an analyzer crystal and a position-sensitive detector is described in a research paper "X-ray fluoresence analysis by means of crystal dispersion and a position-sensitive counter" in "Spectrochimica Acta," vol. 31B (1976), pages 221 to 223. The apparatus is based on a simple x-ray spectrograph first described by Seemann in 1916, which, however, still used photo-sensitive film. The fluorescent radiation emitted by a specimen surface falls into a slit formed between a narrow strip of an analyzer crystal and a lamination opposite the strip. It is refracted in the analyzer crystal according to Bragg's law and falls on the other side of the slit on different points of a position sensitive detector, depending on the wavelength. The radiation of each wavelength stems from another narrowly defined region of the specimen surface, so that this known apparatus can be used directly only for homogeneous samples.
It is the object of the present invention to provide apparatus of this nature with which inhomogeneous samples can also be examined.